Food Processing

As the global flow of raw materials and packaged goods increases, the benefits and needs of visibility to the food supply chain are crystallizing.

The reception in some quarters was less than enthusiastic when a report comparing food traceability regulations in 20 nations was released.
Written by the Global Food Traceability Center (GFTC), the report weighed factors such as mandatory…

Food Safety

Retailers are trying to offer more affordable healthy food options through the introduction of store brands.

Year after year across the U.S., private label’s growth continues to outpace national brands. According to Private Label Foods & Beverages in the U.S., 8th Edition, a recent report by market research firm Packaged Facts, private label…

Packaging

A reader would like to now how to prevent vendors from sharing plant-specific machine modifications with competitors.

A reader asks...
We have equipment we have modified over the years to improve efficiency and cut repair costs. Because some of it is under warranty, the suppliers often are in our plant to perform scheduled maintenance. What is the best way to prevent our improvements from being given to our competitors while not alienating our vendors?
Our expert responds...
You should be applauded for making modifications that move the operation forward. I would think many of the modifications are on pieces of equipment that are out of warranty. If it is under warranty, the vendor would still be liable, provided you required a performance guarantee. First, you can require a confidentiality agreement with the vendor and stipulate that any equipment…

Whether refrigerated or ambient, food handling facilities steadily are improving their efficiency profiles. Forklift systems are a case in point.

Less air and a higher cube are the changes that immediately come to Pete Rolandelli’s mind when contrasting his new grocery distribution center (DC) with the one it replaced in Elizabeth, N.J.
As vice president-logistics and warehousing at…

Plant-based foods win, sugar and meat lose and eggs and coffee are OK again in recommendations to government agencies.

As has been expected, committee recommendations for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will set off contentious debate over their warnings about meat and added sugars, their recommendations that eggs and coffee are OK and that the environmental impact of food should be considered when choosing foods.
Plant-based foods, then, scored high on two counts -- for general health and for environmental impact – when the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) on Feb. 19 made public its nonbinding recommendations to the USDA and Dept. of Health and Human Services (which includes the FDA), which will together write the final Dietary Guidelines by the end of this year.
"The overall body of evidence examined by the 2015 DGAC identifies…

Whether refrigerated or ambient, food handling facilities steadily are improving their efficiency profiles. Forklift systems are a case in point.

Less air and a higher cube are the changes that immediately come to Pete Rolandelli’s mind when contrasting his new grocery distribution center (DC) with the one it replaced in Elizabeth, N.J.
As vice president-logistics and warehousing at…

As the global flow of raw materials and packaged goods increases, the benefits and needs of visibility to the food supply chain are crystallizing.

The reception in some quarters was less than enthusiastic when a report comparing food traceability regulations in 20 nations was released.
Written by the Global Food Traceability Center (GFTC), the report weighed factors such as mandatory…

Recent

Our list of the most read 'what is' ingredient articles in 2015.

There have been numerous reports lately about the ills of processed food. Emulsifiers took the biggest hit in late February after a report in Nature revealed that two widely-used dietary emulsifiers had impacted the gut microbiota in mice. Your average consumer might remember an emulsifier as that thing that makes other stuff stick together. As a food manufacturer, you know better than that. But what else are people trying to learn more about?
See our list of what informative ingredient articles rendered the most traffic. In the last several months:
Is Algae DHA As Healthy as Fish Oil DHA?
Understanding Polydextrose and How It Works
Understanding Monk Fruit: The Next Generation Natural Sweetener
Refuting Myths About Carrageenan…

Food Processing is now accepting nominations for its 2015 R&D Teams of the Year award.

Do you think you have a great product development team, one worthy of a story? Nominate your favorite team by telling us in the fields below who they are and why they're deserving of the honor.
We'll put the essays of two or three teams in each category against each other this Spring. The most votes in our website wins.
The winners will be profiled in our June issue.
Nominate your favorite R&D Team below.

R&D

The natural link between food and fitness has stimulated a mountain of sports nutrition research and launched countless products marketed to fitness-minded consumers.

The research into nutrition and fitness is now so extensive, every five years the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) publishes in its journal a review of studies on the topic. Subjects range from the effects of dietary supplements and…

Plant-based foods win, sugar and meat lose and eggs and coffee are OK again in recommendations to government agencies.

As has been expected, committee recommendations for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will set off contentious debate over their warnings about meat and added sugars, their recommendations that eggs and coffee are OK and that the environmental impact of food should be considered when choosing foods.
Plant-based foods, then, scored high on two counts -- for general health and for environmental impact – when the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) on Feb. 19 made public its nonbinding recommendations to the USDA and Dept. of Health and Human Services (which includes the FDA), which will together write the final Dietary Guidelines by the end of this year.
"The overall body of evidence examined by the 2015 DGAC identifies…

Add flavors and functionality to your formulations with this month's ingredient round-up.

Roasted corn products
Save time with organic IQF Roasted Corn. From salsas to corn chowder, corn adds flavor, texture and color to foods. The company’s roasted corn product is said to handle and store better than raw corn and lend a distinct,…

Recent

Our March 2015 new product rollout offers morsels of sweet, salty, and scrumptious that consumers will love.

Food and beverage manufacturers have been busy producing little slices of deliciousness for hungry consumers. From exotic flavors to sweet-tooth savers, this month's product rollout features an array of new products.
Tomato Ketchup Heats Up with Sriracha
Today’s evolving taste buds crave new flavors, which is why Heinz is getting hot with Heinz Ketchup Blended with Sriracha Flavor.
>>Learn more about this product
Cheetos Sweetos Gives A Cheesy Tradition a Sweet Side
Cheetos Sweetos replaces the signature Cheetos cheese flavor with cinnamon sugar.
>>Learn more about this product
Triple-Layered Yogurt Contains Three Layers of Decadence
Stonyfield's newest yogurt contains three layers of goodness: cream, honey sweetened whole…

Relevant

Plant-based foods win, sugar and meat lose and eggs and coffee are OK again in recommendations to government agencies.

As has been expected, committee recommendations for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will set off contentious debate over their warnings about meat and added sugars, their recommendations that eggs and coffee are OK and that the environmental impact of food should be considered when choosing foods.
Plant-based foods, then, scored high on two counts -- for general health and for environmental impact – when the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) on Feb. 19 made public its nonbinding recommendations to the USDA and Dept. of Health and Human Services (which includes the FDA), which will together write the final Dietary Guidelines by the end of this year.
"The overall body of evidence examined by the 2015 DGAC identifies…

And the currently little niches that some day could be selling tons of your product.

I was talking to some retail executives recently and the conversation became focused on competition. It was not surprising that everyone was very concerned about the big guys that were taking their customers and their sales. What surprised me about the conversation was they seemed rather uninterested in the little guys that were taking their customers and sales.
Now I understand that when someone is beating you over the head with a bat, you may be more interested in the guy beating you than the guy standing in line waiting for his turn. On the other hand, I believe that a prudent food retailer should recognize that 100 small competitors can be just as troublesome as one large competitor.
So the discussion focused on who are all these small…

New Food Products (Database)

The National Association for Female Executives awarded the food processor as one of the Top 50 Companies for Executive Women.

Kellogg has been named one of the Top 50 Companies for Executive Women by the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE).
NAFE operates one of the largest associations for women professionals. The annual list is compiled by NAFE after a thorough review of several factors, including the number of women in each company, and corporate programs and policies dedicated to advancing women.
According to a release, Kellogg Co. includes four women on its board of directors, or 38 percent, and eight women holding spots on the company's Global Leadership Team. This is the second consecutive year Kellogg has been named to the list and the fourth time receiving the recognition since 2009.
Read the full release on Kellogg Co.'s…

Business

The Director of Millennial Engagement will discuss how companies can really listen to their customers during his address on April 28.

The team responsible for bringing the first annual Food Leaders Summit to life recently announced its keynote speaker. Vance Crowe, Director of Millennial Engagement with Monsanto Company, will be speaking to conference attendees about how to have a real, honest conversation with the public about food.
The keynote address, Facing the Restless Generation: Finding what it takes to connect with Millennials, will occur on the first full day of the event, April 28,
According to the Food Leaders Summit website, Crowe will define who the Millennials are in broad but relatable terms, and then describe how Monsanto, a company with low credibility among parts of this generation, is adapting to listen, understand, and address the questions of a…

First outsider to head family-run processor/supplier.

Darifair Foods Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla., food manufacturer with emphasis on foodservice accounts, in January named Midd McManus as president, the first non-family member named to that position.
The company says he is an experienced leader in operations, sales and supply chain in the food industry, and most recently was executive vice president at Sun Orchard, leading their efforts in the foodservice beverage category.
Prior to that, McManus held positions within Morningstar Foods, a subsidiary of Dean Foods, including national director of supply chain, senior director of sales operations, vice president and general manager of foodservice and retail channels, and vice president of away-from-home national account sales.
Darifair Foods…

Recent

A nation-wide check-off program, from farmers to processors, will take the organic market to the next level.

America’s certified organic stakeholders are now considering the most critical and potentially transformative issue for the organic industry since the discussions more than 20 years ago to develop national guidelines and regulations for the then…

Power Lunch

Or at least infiltrate their ranks with some intel from the Food Leaders Summit in April.

I’m a little teary-eyed to be making this admission. It appears I’ll be stepping down, along with 75 million others, as the largest generation the U.S. has ever seen.
Pew Research Center released a report in January that those pesky millennials will surpass us baby boomers in numbers some time this year. Those born 1981-1997 number about 75 million. With a few untimely deaths, baby boomers (born 1946-1964) soon will slip under 75 million.
So much marketing and consumer research, much of it in the food and beverage industry, has focused on us for decades. Tom Brokaw was just being modest when he called our parents “The Greatest Generation.” OK, living through the Great Depression and two world wars is reasonably impressive, but what…

What I've learned about this next generation of food and beverage marketers.

My fall semester is over and I've had a chance to review what the new generation of food marketing job seekers will look like. I'm trying to be as objective as possible, as I clearly remember my father saying that our nation would fall apart when…

Careers

Processors are up against four very big and very real consumer-related issues in 2015.

Looking both forward and backward from the vantage point of New Year's Eve, 2014 may well be remembered as the calm before the storms of 2015. Several big issues loom for the food and beverage industry. All of them went begging for solution in the…

Industry Outlook

With the worst of the Great Recession behind them, food production professionals entered the New Year with fewer questions and more answers about their companies’ and personal paths forward.

Greater confidence and certainty about the future -- for both their own and their organizations’ prospects -- characterizes food professionals’ attitudes as they look forward to 2015, according to feedback from Food Processing’s 14th Annual…

Manufacturing Trends

Plant-based foods win, sugar and meat lose and eggs and coffee are OK again in recommendations to government agencies.

As has been expected, committee recommendations for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will set off contentious debate over their warnings about meat and added sugars, their recommendations that eggs and coffee are OK and that the environmental impact of food should be considered when choosing foods.
Plant-based foods, then, scored high on two counts -- for general health and for environmental impact – when the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) on Feb. 19 made public its nonbinding recommendations to the USDA and Dept. of Health and Human Services (which includes the FDA), which will together write the final Dietary Guidelines by the end of this year.
"The overall body of evidence examined by the 2015 DGAC identifies…

Ingredient Trends

Plant-based foods win, sugar and meat lose and eggs and coffee are OK again in recommendations to government agencies.

As has been expected, committee recommendations for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will set off contentious debate over their warnings about meat and added sugars, their recommendations that eggs and coffee are OK and that the environmental impact of food should be considered when choosing foods.
Plant-based foods, then, scored high on two counts -- for general health and for environmental impact – when the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) on Feb. 19 made public its nonbinding recommendations to the USDA and Dept. of Health and Human Services (which includes the FDA), which will together write the final Dietary Guidelines by the end of this year.
"The overall body of evidence examined by the 2015 DGAC identifies…

R&D Trends

Small brewers are among the leaders in our annual look at construction, which foresees a 15 percent increase.

Packaged bacon and other value-added production is driving annual revenue growth of 3-4 percent at Tyson Foods. Pork and chicken consumption are climbing, but demand for beef is falling as prices rise, putting a chill on capital investments.
The investment community’s attitude toward food and beverage processing is, at best, cool.
Solid but stolid sums up the Street’s view of publicly traded food companies. Sure, many food corporations are consistently profitable and deliver products indispensable to human life, but they lack the sizzle investors love.
In its most recent ratings on 97 industries, Value Line investment survey placed the food industry in the bottom quartile of buy recommendations, ahead of metal fabrication and…

Capital Spending

This year's list of the top food and beverage companies has been altered mostly by domestic buying.

Whereas 2013 saw several U.S. firms undertake acquisitions across the globe – and one mega deal that made a U.S. firm owned by the Chinese – part of last year and the first half of 2014 seem to be playing out as a time of renewed interest in…

Top 100 for 2013

This year's list of the top food and beverage companies has been altered mostly by domestic buying.

Whereas 2013 saw several U.S. firms undertake acquisitions across the globe – and one mega deal that made a U.S. firm owned by the Chinese – part of last year and the first half of 2014 seem to be playing out as a time of renewed interest in…

Top 100 for 2012

With 322 total mergers and acquisitions recorded in 2010, the food and beverage industry is seeing the highest M&A figure since 2008, and about even with the 2005 figure.

The year 2010 began and ended with blockbuster deals.
Kraft Foods Inc. engineered the two biggest mergers and acquisitions of 2010: acquiring Cadbury Plc (in a drama that played out through most of 2009), then helping to pay for that $19.4 billion purchase by selling its pizza business to Nestle SA for $3.7 billion. Both those sales closed in January of 2010.
February saw suddenly acquisitive Diamond Foods get chip maker Kettle Foods, and Sunsweet acquire Herbal Water, maker of Ayala’s Herbal Water.
Last summer, Snyder’s of Hanover Inc. merged with Lance Inc. Seneca Foods Corp. bought Unilink LLC and Lebanon Valley Cold Storage LP, both makers of frozen fruits and vegetables.
In the fall, Ralcorp Holdings bought American Italian Pasta…

Top 100 for 2010

The Food Processing Top 100 list of food and beverage manufacturers is now available in an interactive format.

Starting this year, the Food Processing Top 100 list of food and beverage manufacturers will be available as an interactive, fully-sortable grid on http://www.foodprocessing.com/top100.
All 100 company names, rankings, food sales and company sales will be sortable in ascending or descending order. The sorting function is controlled by clicking the up or down arrow as shown in the image below.
Another added benefit to the interactive list is the introduction of individual profiles for each of the top 100 companies. Each profile contains information such as address, websites, brands or products, executives and much more. You can access the individual company profiles by clicking on the company name in the grid.

Top 100 for 2009

The 2008 top 100 food and beverage processing companies in the U.S. and Canada are profiled in this annual feature. Find company contact information, major brands, key executives and main product areas.

Top 100 for 2008

The 2007 top 100 food and beverage processing companies in the U.S. and Canada are profiled in this annual feature. Find company contact information, major brands, key executives and main product areas.

2011 R&D Team Winner: Unilever

Our 2011 R&D Team of the Year winner for the large company category has home-run products with one eye on costs and the other on sustainability.

Because of the breadth of its product portfolio and its global reach, Unilever is one of few companies that can say some 2 billion consumers in 180 countries use its products every day.

The company operates in more than 100 countries, has a healthy R&D budget (€928 million — currently about $1.3 billion -- worldwide in 2010) and boasts a dozen brands that each ring up sales of about €1 billion ($1.4 billion) annually. Best-sellers include Knorr (Unilever's No 1 brand in the world), Hellmann's (the No. 1 mayonnaise brand in the U.S.), Lipton (tea), Dove and Lux (soaps), and Sunsilk (hair care).

Food is an important part of this consumer goods company, accounting for slightly over 50 percent of the company's €44 billion (in 2010) sales.

Earlier this year, Unilever ranked among the 10 most innovative companies in consumer products and, in 2010, as the world's fourth most innovative company in advertising and marketing, according to Fast Company magazine. Based on your voting for our R&D Teams of the Year, Food Processing readers agree.

Culturally diverse, with top leaders from 22 countries, Unilever owns many of the most successful brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Some 53 percent of its products are sold in emerging markets. They include soups, bouillons, ice cream, sauces, snacks, mayonnaise, salad dressings, olive oil, margarines, spreads and frozen foods.

Unilever's health and wellness initiatives

Unilever's Nutrition Enhancement Program is a global initiative making a positive impact on consumer nutrition and health around the world.

Taking a holistic approach to reduce salt in food without compromising on taste, shelflife and cost, Unilever launched a salt reduction strategy in April 2009 covering 22,000 products – Unilever claims it was the first company to set such goals across its portfolio. So far Unilever has removed 3,640 tons of sodium (9,100 tons of salt) from its portfolio and is committed to further reductions.

Because the global population is getting older, Unilever is studying the relationship between genes and aging to develop technologies that, when translated into products, will help people remain healthy into their later years.

Studies show the middle-aged offspring of long-lived siblings (90-plus years) are healthier than those who do not have such long-lived parents. Using genomic techniques, Unilever is working with Leiden University in the Netherlands to understand how genetic and lifestyle factors enable these individuals to age better, and whether their aging "secrets" can be used to improve the health of others. Genomic technologies enable all the genes in the human genome (approximately 25,000) to be tested at once.

Keeping that product pipeline full is a busy R&D team. "The R&D team in North-America works in collaboration with their global R&D counterparts to develop new products for consumers in the U.S. and Canada," says Stephan Habif, vice president of foods R&D. "The consumer wants it all and it is up to us to deliver.

"She is not ready to sacrifice indulgence for wellness, so we must provide both. She also wants to know that the product she uses does not have an overly negative impact on the environment or on the community in which she lives. We take all these aspects into consideration when developing new products or improving existing ones."

It is sometimes challenging for a large company to come up with innovative new products because there are so many layers to go through. Habif says that is not a problem at Unilever. "Everything becomes simple when you are guided by the following two questions: 'Does our consumer really want this product?' and 'Is she willing to pay for it?' "

He says the professionals on his team have a common drive. "It is to delight the consumer while reducing our environmental impact," he says. "They work on a variety of projects from new product development to value improvement projects [which improve a product's quality at the same cost or preserve quality at a reduced cost.]"

Describing his management style as "pretty informal and open, with an open-door policy," Habif says, "I truly feel good ideas can come from anywhere." He also points out that all the teams at Unilever "are truly integrated and work as a team with the other functions (manufacturing, marketing, purchasing, etc.) involved in innovation."

Unilever's recipe for R&D success"Every R&D employee is truly passionate about the products they are working on," says Habif. "Their passion for our food and personal care businesses combined with a mission to help our consumers look good, feel good and get more out of life enables them to make successful products that consumers want."

Passion isn't the only ingredient. "Success also comes from a real collaboration between the diverse professions within R&D. Chefs, food scientists, process engineers, packaging engineers, nutritionists and microbiologists all work together to design products our consumers want and can afford while minimizing the impact on the environment."

How long does a new product take? "Some products can be on the market in a few months from idea to shelf, while others take years," he explains. "We are determined to reduce our overall time to market by systematically identifying and eliminating all the 'time killers' lurking in the project timelines. One of the key words in the fast-moving consumer goods industry is 'fast.' "

Firsts for Unilever

Unilever was the first company to commercially produce margarine in 1878 – through founding company Margarine Unie – as a wholesome alternative to butter.

Unilever is the world's biggest ice cream manufacturer. Heart brand products (marketed under different names in different markets) are sold in more than 40 countries.

Hellmann's, Amora Vinagrettes, Calvé ketchup and Wish-Bone brands account for the largest dressings business around the globe. Hellmann's is also the world's No. 1 mayonnaise brand.

Knorr is Unilever's No. 1 global brand.

Unilever is the largest buyer of tea in the world, purchasing approximately 12 percent of the world's supply of black tea. In 2007, Lipton led the industry by committing to sustainably sourcing all of its tea in tea bags by 2015. The brand works closely with the Rainforest Alliance to ensure all of the estates that supply Lipton tea meet comprehensive standards for protecting wildlife, wild lands, workers' rights and local communities.

With such a vast portfolio of products, we couldn't help but wonder which products he is proudest of. "This is a difficult question, similar to having to choose between your children, and I am proud of all my children," he replies. But, also like a proud father, he highlighted a few outstanding accomplishments of his team.

First was the line of P.F. Chang's Home Menu (frozen dishes) launched about a year ago. "Our talented chefs and food scientists have been able to capture the essence of the iconic dishes served at the famed restaurants, while our process engineers used advanced, proprietary processing techniques to preserve the original flavor, texture and taste of the unique ingredients."

He also pointed to the recent launch of Magnum ice cream in the U.S., bringing to America one of the world's largest ice cream brands (available in 40 countries).

"The R&D team worked hard at implementing in North America a proprietary processing technology enabling us to make unique novelties, such as the Magnum Doubles that are made of an ice cream bar surrounded by a hollow chocolaty coating containing a liquid caramel or chocolate sauce." His favorite is the double chocolate variant: chocolate ice cream with a chocolate sauce covered by a real Belgian chocolate coating -- a chocolate-lover's delight!

Packaging and the environment

As a leading manufacturer of packaged consumer products, Unilever recognizes the ever-increasing importance of ensuring the safety of our environment. When developing packaging, many factors are taken into consideration, including ease of use as well as overall economic and environmental benefits. Packages are designed to provide safe, convenient and attractive protection.

Unilever has made a commitment to two methods of waste management: source reduction and recycled packaging. And the company limits the amount of packaging only to what is necessary for optimal product performance, freshness and safety.

Ideation sessions have a crucial role in new product development, but there are other avenues for idea-gathering. Habif emphasizes that Unilever is open on all fronts.

"As I mentioned before, good ideas can come from anywhere and everywhere: from new technologies enabling us to make products that could not or have not been manufactured before to consumer observations yielding really strong insights into unmet needs," he says. "We are constantly talking to consumers and customers and scouting for new technologies."

As for the challenges facing the industry and what keeps him up at night, Habif says, "Like all CPG companies, we are facing commodity cost pressures, so at Unilever we have a real responsibility to drive all the unnecessary costs out of our products to help our consumers enjoy their benefits."